World Twenty20: Pakistan restrict Sri Lanka to 139

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World Twenty20: Pakistan restrict Sri Lanka to 139

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Sri Lanka wasted a sound start as Pakistan restricted the hosts to 139-4 WT20 semi-final in Colombo.

04 October,2012 08:22 pm

Some 35,000 fans at the Premadasa stadium watched Sri Lanka struggle to force the pace after Mahela Jayawardene elected to take first strike on a sluggish pitch that hampered stroke-making.Sri Lanka plodded to 123-4 in 19 overs when Thisara Perera smashed three boundaries in the final over bowled by seamer Umar Gul which realised 16 runs.Openers Jayawardene and Tillakaratne Dilshan put on 63 in 10 overs, a slow start by Twenty20 standards but crucial nevertheless for Sri Lanka still had all their wickets in hand.Jayawardene liberally employed the reverse sweep during his knock of 42 off 36 balls, but was caught at fine-leg while attempting the same shot off leg-spinner Shahid Afridi.Kumar Sangakkara made a promising 18 from 11 balls when he was snapped up on the long-on fence as he tried to hit Pakistan captain Mohammad Hafeez out of the ground.Gul was unlucky to see the TV umpire declare a no-ball after he had Jeevan Mendis given out leg-before in the 18th over.But Gul removed Dilshan two balls later with another leg-before decision that made Sri Lanka 117-3.Dilshan was unusually subdued during his innings, taking 43 balls to score 35 with the help of three boundaries.Australia and the West Indies will clash in the second semi-final on Friday. The final is scheduled for Sunday.Mahela Jayawardene c Hasan b Afridi 42Tillakaratne Dilshan lbw b Gul 35Kumar Sangakkara c Malik b Hafeez 18Jeevan Mendis st KAkmal b Ajmal 15Thisara Perera not out 11Angelo Mathews not out 10Extras: (3b, 4w, 1nb) 8TOTAL: (for 4 wickets) 139Overs: 20.Fall of wickets: 1-63, 2-84, 3-117, 4-118Did not bat: Lahiru Thirimanne, Nuwan Kulasekara, Rangana Herath, Lasith Malinga, Ajantha Mendis.Bowling: Sohail Tanvir 3-0-11-0 (1w), Raza Hasan 4-0-26-0, Saeed Ajmal 4-0-33-1 (1w), Shahid Afridi 4-0-28-1, Mohammad Hafeez 2-0-12-1 (1w), Umar Gul 3-0-26-1 (1nb, 1w)Pakistan: Mohammad Hafeez (captain), Imran Nazir, Nasir Jamshed, Shoaib Malik, Umar Akmal, Kamran Akmal, Shahid Afridi, Sohail Tanvir, Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal, Raza Hasan.Toss: Sri Lanka.Umpires: Simon Taufel, Australia, and Rod Tucker, Australia.TV umpire: Ian Gould, England. Match referee: Jeff Crowe, New Zealand.